Why Jennifer Lawrence hated her sex scene in ‘Passengers’
As a film, Passengers seemed to be eternally stuck in the terminal, but for Jennifer Lawrence, it was sadly a journey she will never forget. These days, there is rightfully far more scrutiny over sex scenes in Hollywood. Intimacy coordinators are now in place to help make them as safe and equitable as possible, but more still needs to be done.
This discussion recently came to the fore when Sean Bean said that they “spoil the spontaneity” of the scene. When we spoke to an intimacy coordinator about these comments, they told us: “Actors can still be spontaneous, the intimacy coordination just ensures the cast and crew’s safety and well-being. Intimacy coordinators help the actors to realise and respect their own boundaries. An action scene may feel ‘spontaneous’ to one actor, but to another, it may feel like an assault.” After all, do fight scenes mimic a brawl, or are they stringently coordinated for the safety of those involved?
However, the prep for such a taxing scene does not merely begin on set. Actors need to be coached on the mental side of it beforehand. Lawrence described Passengers as her “first real sex scene” and found that she was mentally unprepared. She found the experience to be “really awkward” and although it was merely fiction, she found that kissing a married man was very uncomfortable.
Thus, while Chris Pratt was not to blame, she told The Hollywood Reporter that she had to get “really, really drunk” to cope with the scenes. Concluding that “sex scenes are the most unsexy things in the world.” While that might be the reality, they should not be as mentally taxing as Lawrence found them with the right emotional preparation in place.
Sadly, the stresses for Lawrence were exacerbated further owing to media scrutiny of the onscreen romance. At the time, Pratt announced a divorce from his ex-wife Anna Faris and given the intimacy of the Passengersplot, several tabloids speculated whether filming has spawned a romance that split the marriage. Naturally, this made things even more awkward and even though Lawrence shot the rumours down, the gossip continued.
The positive thing moving forward is that intimacy coordination looks to make sex scenes just like any other. As we were informed: There needs to be a pre-thought-out, signed agreement of what will happen when the camera starts rolling, which can only really be obtained with the help of an intimacy coordinator. It’s important to also incorporate rehearsals and have conversations about what the director wants to achieve using the least invasive use of touch.”
